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Love On Hold: For Army Wife, Missed Connections
Siobhan Fallon is the author of the short-story collection You Know When the Men Are Gone.
The spouses of deployed soldiers have a desperate relationship with the phone.
Read More About Siobhan Fallon
You never know when it will ring. Even when you get an email that says your husband will call you at a certain time on a certain day, there are always last-minute patrols — sudden communication black-outs when all Internet and phone lines on the base are cut, or claims that "the satellite dish can't find the satellite." The randomness can drive a girl crazy. Because I had to answer that phone — especially since there was always an ugly whisper in my brain saying this just might be the last call my soldier would make.
My husband has deployed three times: Afghanistan in 2004, Iraq in 2006 and again in 2009. Technology changed a great deal from his first deployment to his last — from 2004, with its long stretches of nothing broken up by airmail letters closed with electrical tape and covered in a fine, gray sand, to the sporadic Skype and fairly regular email contact we had in 2009. But somehow, during each deployment, it seemed like I missed his calls more often than I managed to pick them up, my cellphone inbox full of his faraway sigh, "Damn, baby, where are you?"
But I was there, all the time — running for the phone left on the diaper changing table, digging for it at the bottom of my purse while driving 70 miles an hour on a Texas interstate, leaving a trail of water from the shower to grab a phone just out of reach, clamping it to my ear one second too late.
During the three years of our marriage that we spent apart, those phone calls, even with the time delay and static, were the closest we could get to each other, when we could hear each other breathe and know we were both OK. You learn to cram into that allotted 15 minutes every scrap of a shared life you can manage — that the mortgage payment is on time, that your child is learning to crawl, that you still love each other with all the distance thrown in between.
That tenuous phone call is the highlight of your week.
Now the media is focused on our troops returning from Iraq, a happy influx of homecomings and reunions. But there are still 100,000 servicemen and women in Afghanistan. Their families are still waiting, getting ready to watch a ball drop on New Year's, holding on to their phones, wishing them to ring, praying they will be there to answer — and that they will hear their soldier's voice on the other side.


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President Nelson taught, "Good inspiration is based upon good information." In this blog, we share good information from original sources. Many Latter-day Saints still believe what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah. This blog discusses corroborating evidence. We support the Church's policy of neutrality regarding Book of Mormon geography and other issues. That policy promotes unity by recognizing multiple working hypotheses. We encourage all interested parties to do the same.
long ago ideas
"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Long ago, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery conquered false claims that the Book of Mormon was fiction or that it came through a stone in a hat. But these old claims have resurfaced in recent years. To conquer them again, we have to return to what Joseph and Oliver taught.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tokyo UndergroundSynopsisDeep in the earth, beneath the bustling streets of Tokyo, there is a hidden world. Created by a corporate entity known only as "Company", the vast labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, and laboratories was used for the express purpose of studying a hidden power within some humans that allowed them to control the very elemental and physical forces that make up life as we know it. However, they dug too deeply into their research and unleashed a power that they were unable to control. Afraid of their creation, they sealed it away and closed off the entrances to their secret subterranean cities, trapping their former employees and test subjects below. A generation later, in the Tokyo Underground, a new power user, named Ruri, has appeared. Called the "Maiden of Life", she can control the very essence of life itself, and the vengeful leaders of the Underground see her as a chance to awaken the Company's feared creation and take revenge on the surface dwellers who abandoned them. The bodyguard of the Maiden of Life, Chelsea Rorec, a power user who can control gravity, discovers the dark designs of her superiors and decides to flee with Ruri. They manage to escape above ground where they meet a boy named Rumina and his friend Ginnosuke. When the Company tries to recapture them, Rumina displays a hidden power, the ability to control wind. People from the Underground have never encountered this ability before, since no winds blow there. The Maiden is recaptured and Chelsea, Rumina, and Ginnosuke set out to save her. But how does Rumina possess powers thought only to be native to those from the Underground? What is this dark power that the remnants of the Company are trying to unleash? Will they make it in time to save Ruri? ReviewOriginal in concept, beautiful in design, but lacking in technical execution, Tokyo Underground is a show that, while entertaining, could have been so much better. The entire underground city theme has been done before (i.e. Evangelion), but it is given a fresh face in this show that makes it seem more real, rather than fantasy. Long dark tunnels with prefab walls, artificial lighting on rails, and a dark sky of metal replace the fanciful geofronts of other anime. The Underground is exactly that. The character designs are well done and very faithful to the original manga, and all the inking seems to have been done with computers, like many of the newer shows, lending Tokyo Underground a smooth and stylish look. But then Studio Pierrot, in typical mass-market fashion, drops the ball a bit. The single major flaw in the execution of this otherwise interesting anime is, well...its almost total lack of animation. Not since Star Ocean EX (yet another Pierrot release) have I seen the "still shots and pans" style of anime taken to such an extreme. It's a shame really, since the otherwise wonderful character concepts would really be something if they actually moved more than five frames an episode. All right, so perhaps that's a bit exaggerated, but honestly, close-ups with fuzzy digital filters are no replacement for well-animated facial expressions, and black screens with flashes of light do not constitute good sword fighting scenes. For a show based on such an action-packed manga, it is distinctly lacking in motion. It also suffers in a minor way from what I call Kenshin Syndrome, where the heroes and villains feel compelled to offer up lengthy explanations on life, the universe and this week's special attacks while in the middle of a big fight scene. Sometimes I found myself shouting at the screen: "Just punch him already!" Sheesh. Still, it's not entirely bad, and some of the scenes are genuinely funny or exciting, but so much of it drags, that what could have been fast-paced and interesting, becomes tedious in some episodes. I lay the fault for this at the feet of Studio Pierrot, who has a long history of anime releases of varying quality (including the exceptional Kimagure Orange Road and Hikaru no Go), but is primarily focused on merchandising and commercial sales. Tokyo Underground will never be a classic, but it's a fun ride for what it's worth. The premise alone wins points for originality, and the characters are fun if slightly dumbed down for a younger target audience. The opening and ending music is also excellent. I would recommend this as a good starter action series for newer fans, or younger viewers, but more well-versed fans may be slightly disappointed, especially if they have read the manga. Recommended Audience: The target audience for this show was primarily preteen to teenage boys but it holds little that is objectional for youger children of either gender aside from the fighting, which is toned down and bloodless. Version(s) Viewed: digital source Review Status: Full (26/26) Tokyo Underground © 2002 Uraku Akinobu / Enix / TV Tokyo / Dentsu / Pierrot |
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved. |


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Katie Prager, the wife in the real "Fault in Our Stars" couple, died Thursday after complications from cystic fibrosis and a lung transplant. She was 26 years old.
"Early this morning, she gained her wish of being at home, in her bed, surrounded by her mom, dad, brother and her dogs, dying peacefully, away from the hospital, tubes, IVs," her mother, Debra Donovan, posted on Facebook. "The days to follow will not be easy but I find comfort in knowing that my girl lived, she really lived."
Katie had been in hospice care in her Flemingsburg, Kentucky, home since September 7.
Her husband, Dalton Prager, died just days earlier, on Saturday, after suffering from the same disease. He was 25.
"Dalton fought a long hard battle with cystic fibrosis," Katie posted on Facebook at the time. "He was a courageous fighter and 'give up' wasn't in his vocabulary."
A love story stronger than fiction
The young couple garnered worldwide attention last year after CNN wrote about Katie's fight to get a lung transplant.
They were known as the real "Fault in Our Stars" couple, as their love story bore a resemblance to the 2012 book and 2014 movie "The Fault in Our Stars," in which teenage cancer patients fall in love.
Katie and Dalton met on Facebook in 2009, when they were both 18. Katie noticed that Dalton's mother had posted a photo of Dalton in the hospital.
"If you ever need a friend to talk to, you can reach out to me," she wrote.
"Sorry, but do I know you?" he responded.
No, you don't, Katie wrote back and told Dalton a bit about herself.
"My breathing is pretty crappy and I see you are in the hospital. I'm sorry. I know it sucks!…But you just gotta stay strong," she wrote to him.
Messages between the two flew back and forth. They realized they were falling in love, but Katie's doctor urged her not to meet with him in person, because Dalton had an infection called Burkholderia cepacia, which can be deadly for people with cystic fibrosis.
She defied her doctor, and on August 28, 2009, Dalton and his mother drove more than six hours from their home in St. Charles, Missouri, to Flemingsburg, where they'd arranged to meet at the Dairy Queen.
At 7:10 p.m. — they remember the time precisely — Katie got out of her car and saw Dalton leaning against a brick wall, looking cool and handsome in his sunglasses.
"My heart was racing, but I just went right up to him and hugged and kissed him on the mouth without even saying hello," she remembered. "I'm usually not that kind of girl, but it just felt so right."
For their first date, the couple rode the roller coasters at Kings Island amusement park a few hours away in Ohio. Dalton gave Katie a necklace for her 19th birthday, which was two days before.
Katie caught Dalton's Burkholderia cepacia infection immediately, she said.
The couple wed less than two years later, and despite their infections, they were relatively healthy for the next few years.
They bought a house in Flemingsburg and filled it with wedding photos and board games, hosting regular game nights and cooking and traveling.
Those years "were great," Katie told CNN days before she died. "We did stuff; we had fun. It was like something out of a fairy tale."
Their fairy-tale ending
In 2014, the infection got the best of their lungs, and both Katie and Dalton entered the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center together to wait for new lungs. Dalton's came first, and on November 17, he had his transplant. In July 2015, after a long fight with Medicare, Medicaid and her hospital, Katie got her transplant, too.
But their medical struggles continued. Dalton seemed to do well at first after his transplant but then developed lymphoma. He overcame the cancer but was recently hospitalized in Missouri with pneumonia and a viral infection.
Katie's transplant never worked well. She was in and out of the hospital, and earlier this month, doctors told her there was nothing more they could do. She entered hospice care at her home in Kentucky.
The family had hoped to fly Dalton from Missouri to a hospital in Kentucky so they could could be together again. Ultimately, Dalton was never healthy enough to make the trip. He died in a St. Louis hospital, while Katie spoke to him through FaceTime.
The day before Dalton died, Katie told CNN she had no regrets about their decision to meet in person. For all the time spent sick or in the hospital, it's the time they spent together that stood out to her.
"It gave me some of the best years of my life," she said. "I'd rather have five years of being in love and just really completely happy than 20 years of not having anybody."
The last time they saw each other was July 16, their fifth wedding anniversary. Their love story was short, but she knew it brought joy and inspiration to others.
"I think that if we had gotten the chance to write a book that it would have been a bestseller," Katie said days before she died.
She even knew how their fairy tale would end.
"And they lived happily ever after," Katie said, "in each other's arms for eternity."
Husband in real-life 'Fault in Our Stars' couple dies at 25
Real 'Fault in our Stars' couple takes a tragic turn
Real 'Fault in Our Stars' couple kiss again
Real 'Fault in Our Stars' couple reunited as hospitals work to clear red tape
A real 'Fault in Our Stars' couple fights red tape to survive


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This is the planning page for the Text Layout Summit 2011 meeting to be held in conjunction with Desktop Summit (combined GUADEC and aKademy) in Berlin.
Venue and Date
The meeting will be held in conjunction with Desktop Summit 2011 in Berlin, August 9 to 12.
August 6,7,8 is the main Desktop Summit presentation days, and starting at 9th the conference is in BoF / hacking mode, so we have reserved a room for TextLayout during those days, but participants are welcome to arrive earlier and attend Desktop Summit.
The meeting will take place in room 1.308/1.
Please register for the event on the Desktop Summit website. Registration is free.
Attendee | Arrival | Departure |
Behdad Esfahbod | Aug 7 | Aug 13 |
Jiang Jiang | Aug 8 | Aug 12 |
Lars Knoll | Aug 9 | Aug 10 |
Daniel Glassey | Aug 5 | Aug 13 |
The following people have expressed an interest in hacking on the following projects during the gathering:


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Caladium 'Candidum' has pure white leaves with contrasting green veins and narrow green margins.
Caladiums are tropical Perennials, native to the Amazon jungles of South America. Caladiums are grown for their showy colorful long-lasting leaves and have proven to be excellent bedding plants. Also great for pots, indoors or outdoors. Fancy Leaved Caladiums are tall with large, heart shaped leaves.
Caladiums are extremely easy to grow in moist, well-drained soil. These shade loving but sun tolerant plants thrive in heat and humidity. Soil temperature needs to be 70F or higher when planting. For a bushier plant (shorter and with more leaves) remove the main bud, this is called de-eying. After planting, it could take 3-6 weeks for the leaves to emerge. In the Fall before the first frost, dig up the tubers including the leaves. Place them in the sun for several days. Store in mesh or paper bags between 65F – 70F.


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Have you ever wondered how a ship made of steel can float? Or better yet, how can a steel ship carry a heavy load without sinking? In this science project you will make little "boats" out of aluminum foil to investigate how their size and shape affects much weight they can carry and how this relates to the density of water.Summary
Teisha Rowland, PhD, Science Buddies
This project is based on:- Junior Engineering, 1997. Buoyancy. Utah State University. Retrieved December 29, 2006.
Determine how much weight can be supported by boat hulls of various volumes and how this relates to the density of water.Introduction
You know from experience that if you drop a steel bolt in a bucket of water that it will sink like a rock to the bottom. On the other hand, you know that ships made of steel can float. How does it work?
What determines whether an object floats or sinks? It is the density (mass per unit volume) of the object compared to the density of the liquid. If the object is more dense than the fluid, it will sink. If the object is less dense than the fluid, it will float. If the object has the same density as the fluid it will neither sink nor float.
With a steel-hulled ship, it is the shape of the ship's hull that matters. On an empty ship the hull encloses a volume of air so that the total density is defined by Equation 1 below.
Equation 1:
The ship floats because its density is less than the density of water. But when cargo or other weight is added to the ship, its density is now defined by Equation 2 below.
Equation 2:
If too much cargo or weight is added to the ship, the density of the ship becomes greater than the density of water, and the ship sinks. Extra cargo would need to be thrown overboard in a hurry or it is time to abandon ship!
Archimedes discovered that an object placed in water displaces a volume of water. If the object is floating, the amount of water that gets displaced weighs at least as much as the object. The displaced water creates an upward force on the object, called buoyancy. The strength of this upward acting force exerted by water is equal to the weight of the water that is displaced. Whether an object sinks or floats depends on its density and the amount of water it displaces to create a strong enough buoyant force.
In this hydrodynamics science project you will make boat hulls of various shapes and sizes using simple materials (aluminum foil and tape) and determine how much weight can be supported by these hulls and how this relates to the density of water. Can you predict how many pennies each of your boats will support without sinking?
Terms and Concepts
- Density
- Mass
- Volume
- Density of water
- Displacement
- Buoyancy
- What is density?
- How can the density of something, like a boat, be changed?
- If a boat is sinking because it has too much cargo, how does its density compare to the density of water? What about its density right before it became too heavy?
Here are some good background resources on buoyancy and how heavy objects float in water:- Wikipedia contributors. (2013, January 16). Buoyancy. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- # Link Name="Aero_p020.2" Value="HtmlAnchor" HtmlText="ScienceLine" #]. (n.d.). How does a boat float if it's heavy? University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
Here is an article to get you thinking about what happens if the fluid in which the object is immersed has a density lower or higher than that of water:
- Phillips, T. (2005). Rainbows on Titan, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Science News. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
- Wikipedia. (2009). Cartesian diver. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
For help creating graphs, try this website:
- National Center for Education Statistics, (n.d.). Create a Graph. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
Materials and Equipment
- Aluminum foil
- Cellophane tape, such as the common Scotch® tape brand
- Optional: Permanent marker
- Metric ruler or dry rice kernels and either a metric measuring cup or graduated cylinder
- A sink, tub, bucket, or dishpan
- Water
- Pennies (at least 200, depending on the size of your boat hulls)
- Optional: Paper towels or rag
- Calculator
- Lab notebook
Experimental Procedure
- Use the aluminum foil and tape to construct at least five boat hulls with different sizes and shapes.
- Try building some different boats using the same amount of aluminum foil for each.
- Also try building some different boats using different amounts of aluminum foil.
- Some different shapes you could try include making the hulls have two pointed ends (like canoes), like the ones on the left in Figure 1, or be square or rectangular (like a rectangular prism), like the ones on the right in Figure 1.
- You can fold or even cut the aluminum foil if you wish to obtain the desired shape.
- Make sure the hulls are not too large to fit in the sink, tub, bucket, or dishpan you will be using.
- Make finishing touches to the boat hulls so that they are ready to test.
- Make sure there are no leaks!
- Make sure the hulls seem to hold their shape. If they do not, try adding a little tape to make them stronger.
- Flatten the bottoms of the hulls.
- Try to make sure each hull's rim is the same height going all around the edge of the hull. In other words, make sure there is not a low point in the rim of any of the hulls.
- Assign a number (1 to 5) to each boat hull. You could do this by using a permanent marker to label each hull with a number or by describing and/or drawing each hull in your lab notebook. However you do it, just be sure you have a way to identify each hull by a number.
Figure 1. Some different boat hull shapes you could make include boat hulls that have two pointed ends, like the ones on the left in this image, or boat hulls that are square or rectangular, like the ones on the right in this image.
- Calculate the volume of each boat hull. Below are two alternative methods you could use. (Or, you could use both methods, and compare your results. Which method is more accurate?)
- Ruler Method
- If the hull is a rectangular prism, use the ruler to measure the length, width, and height of the hull in centimeters (cm). Calculate the volume by using Equation 3 below.
Equation 3:
- If parts of the hull are rectangular prisms but other parts are curved or angled, measure the (imagined) parts of the hull piece-wise (in centimeters), calculate the volume of each part, and add up the volumes to get the total volume for each hull.
- Use triangular prisms to approximate any areas of the hull that are curved or angled. Calculate the volume by using Equation 4 below.
- Calculate the volume of any rectangular prism parts by using Equation 3 above.
- If the entire hull is a triangular prism, calculate the volume by using Equation 4.
- In your lab notebook, record the volume for each hull in a data table like Table 1 below.
Equation 4:
- If the hull is a rectangular prism, use the ruler to measure the length, width, and height of the hull in centimeters (cm). Calculate the volume by using Equation 3 below.
Dry Rice Method
- Carefully fill the boat hull with dry rice. The rice should be level with the top of the hull.
- Being careful not to damage the hull, move the dry rice into the measuring cup (or graduated cylinder).
- Gently shake the cup to level the rice.
- Read the volume of the dry rice, in milliliters (mL).
- If this is all of the rice that was in the boat hull, then this is the volume of your boat hull.
- If there is still rice left in the hull, empty the rice from the measuring cup and fill it with rice from the hull until the hull is empty. In your lab notebook, keep track of the amount of rice that you have filled the measuring cup with. The total amount of rice that was in the hull is the volume of the hull.
- In your lab notebook, record the volume for each hull in a data table like Table 1 below.
- Record the volume in cubic centimeters (cm³). Cubic centimeters are the same as milliliters.
- Ruler Method
Boat hull | Volume (in cm³) | Number of Pennies it Supported | Weight it Supported (in grams) |
Density Before Sinking (in grams per cm³) |
1 | ||||
2 | ||||
3 | ||||
4 | ||||
5 |
- Measure the buoyancy of each boat hull.
- Fill the sink, tub, bucket, or dishpan with some water.
- The water level should be deeper than the height of the boat hulls so that they are able to sink.
- Carefully float one of the hulls in the container of water.
- Gently add one penny at a time. To prevent the hull from tipping, carefully balance the load as you add pennies (left to right, front and back— or port to starboard, fore and aft, if you are feeling nautical).
- Keep adding pennies until the boat finally sinks.
- Count how many pennies the boat could support before sinking (i.e., the penny that sank the boat does not count).
- In the data table in your lab notebook, record how many pennies the boat could support.
- Repeat steps 3b to 3f until you have tested each hull.
- Only use dry pennies. If you run out of dry pennies, you may need to use paper towels or a rag to dry some, or wait until they have dried.
- For each hull, convert the number of pennies it could support to grams. Do this by multiplying the number of pennies by 2.5 grams (which is the weight of a single penny in grams). Record this in the data table in your lab notebook.
- Fill the sink, tub, bucket, or dishpan with some water.
- Calculate the density of each hull right before sinking.
- For each hull, divide the number of grams it could support by its volume. This will give you the hull's density in grams per cm³.
- Record your results in the data table in your lab notebook.
- Make a line graph of buoyancy. To do this put the weight supported by the boat (in grams) on the y-axis and the boat hull volume (in cm³) on the x-axis. Include each boat on your graph.
- You can make a graph by hand or use a website like Create a Graph to make a graph on the computer and print it.
- Make a bar graph of the density of each hull before sinking. To do this put the density before sinking (in grams per cm³) on the y-axis and make a bar for each of the boats (on the x-axis).
- Analyze your graphs.
- What do your results tell you about the relationship between buoyancy (amount of weight a boat can support) and volume of the boat hull?
- The density of the hulls right before sinking should roughly be the same as the density of water. (Tip: Reread the Introduction in the Background tab if you are unsure of why this is.) Based on the results in your bar graph, what do you think is the density of water?
Ask an Expert
- You roughly calculated the density of water in this science project, but your calculation could be made even more accurate. Thinking about what factors affected your density calculation, develop a way to more accurately determine the density of water, such as by including the weight of the boat hulls, adding items smaller than pennies to measure how much weight the hulls can carry, and more accurately determining the volume of the hulls. How close can you get your calculations to the actual density of water?
- Tip: To calculate the average weight of a small item, you can use a scale to find out how much 10 or 20 of the items weigh (together) and calculate the average weight by dividing the total weight by the number of items you weighed.
- In this science project you investigated the density of water, but what about the density of other liquids? Think of some other liquids (or semi-solids) that you would like to test the density of, such as cooking oil, liquid detergent, or snow. Check with an adult first to make sure it is alright for you to use these liquids for your science project. Make sure not to use any dangerous chemicals, such as household cleaning solutions! If you do not want to use much of the liquid, you can dilute it with water or use a small container (just wide enough to fit your boat hull in) and fill it so it is just a little deeper than the height of the hull. If you dilute the liquids with water, keep track of how much you diluted them by. What are the densities of other liquids and semisolids? How do their densities compare to that of water?
- It would be difficult to bring a bathtub to the science fair in order to demonstrate your project, but there is a nice demonstration of buoyancy that you can show in a clear plastic soda bottle—see the Wikipedia link in the Bibliography in the Background tab.
- Use other materials for building the boat hulls. For example, waxed half-gallon cartons (for milk or juice) can be cut open and unfolded to produce sheets of waterproof material. To make folds to create the desired hull shape, first score the material with a blunt stylus—the classic Bic pens with the blue plastic caps have a great shape for this. Keep the cap on and use it to score the waxed paperboard before folding.
- Here is a "thought experiment" for more advanced students to try. NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent the European Space Agency's Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, where it found evidence that the surface contains large bodies of liquid methane (Phillips, 2005). On Earth, methane (CH4) is typically not liquid at all, and is known most commonly as 'natural gas.' On Titan, where the surface temperature is −179°C, water would be solid and methane is a flowing liquid. What is the density of liquid methane? How does the density of liquid methane compare to the density of water? If your boat could float 100 pennies in water, how many pennies would it support (on Earth) in a container filled with liquid methane? An actual experiment you could do would be to re-do the experiment with a liquid that has a density different than that of water. Cooking oil would be a good choice. Though the difference in density is not nearly as dramatic as for liquid methane, it is a lot easier to obtain and safer to work with! How does the buoyancy of each boat hull in vegetable oil (measured by the number of pennies it can support) compare to its buoyancy in water?
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:
Related Links
- Science Fair Project Guide
- Other Ideas Like This
- Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics Project Ideas
- My Favorites


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An interview with Forest Vance…
Hello Critical Bench Nation!
Head Strength Coach Chris here and I'm excited to have Mr. Forest Vance (former Pro Football Player) here w/ me today to answer some questions about his Body Weight Strong 2.0 system.
With the kind of background that Forest has in terms of performance and strength, I'm sure all of us are curious about what makes his NEW system different from the burpees, push-ups and squats we've done before….and can Body Weight Strong 2.0 really add pounds of muscle to our bodies?
So enough w/ the chatter, let's get right down to it…..
Question #1: There are several body weight programs in the fitness industry today and a majority of them focus on calorie burning and fat loss. Your program tackles (you like that) STRENGTH…is that really possible w/ body weight only exercises?
Forest Vance: Yes most definitely gaining strength is possible with bodyweight only exercises!
You have to take a little bit different approach though, than you would if you were using bodyweight training for fat loss and conditioning etc.A couple of things to start with would be using more advanced exercises – and this of course depends on the individual and their level of strength fitness etc.
And also you have to work in lower rep ranges.So if you can do, say, 50 regular push-ups, is going to be fine for endurance and conditioning, but it won't work for building strength.We would need you to do more challenging exercises for you, and that would be maybe something like a foot elevated push-up, or a one armed push-up. These are the type of progressions we cover in Body Weight Strong 2.0.
And this way, we can make the exercise more challenging, get it to where you are challenging yourself and reaching failure in a much lower rep range.
Question #2: Your program isn't purely body weight….meaning it does include some suspension training, kettlebell etc….What can someone do if they're interested in the program but they don't have access to that kind of equipment?
Forest Vance: Well I designed the program using bodyweight as the primary means of resistance … Probably the major piece of equipment you would need to really get the most out of it would be a pull-up bar.
Now if you don't have a pull-up bar we can certainly be resourceful – we can find a pull-up bar somewhere in local park, heck, they can even nail a 2 x 4 to 3 in their backyard and use that as a pull-up bar.I'm all about being resourceful, and telling my clients and athletes that I work with with not make excuses and just get it done! 🙂
Question #3: Most times a workout w/ body weight is higher rep and you work towards failure and/or hypertrophy. That's not necessarily the case w/ your program based on what I've seen. Can you explain your approach more in depth?
Forest Vance: Yes for sure, if you're training for strength you're going to take a different approach than if you're training for conditioning or fat loss or hypertrophy.
Let's take something like a handstand push-up for example. The best way to work up to exercise like this is to:
1 – practice it frequently, not going to failure, but rather learning the skill2 – not go to failure and totally burn yourself out like you would if you were going for fat loss or conditioning, but more working at a lower rep range not going to failure …
This way you can train your nervous system and get stronger and make consistent progress and practice it more frequently so you make progress faster.
Question #4: Is a program like this going to 'take away' or STEAL strength from traditional weight lifting that most guys still want to do in the gym?
Forest Vance: No not at all … I would say it's a great compliment.
I personally cycle through and do heavy training with kettlebells and barbells probably 50% of the time, and then I come back to work on my bodyweight training stuff the rest of the time.I went for years of doing just heavy type training, and I'm a big guy so I'm definitely not built for this crazy calisthenic type stuff people are doing these days … so if I can do it, anybody can!
Question #5: Will Body Weight Strong help improve range of motion, flexibility and mobility? Can we expect to feel "better" throughout our body especially when it comes to soreness and stiffness in the joints?
Forest Vance: Absolutely bodyweight strong will help improve all of these things. When you train with your own bodyweight you develop such superior body control, body awareness, ability to contract muscles that you never even thought you had!
Then when you come back to doing your more traditional weight training, you get a lot of this transfer – a good example is once you learn to develop full body tension when you having a do something like a one armed push-up or a pistol squat, you can then use these techniques and body awareness etc. to apply to your more traditional weight training stuff you're doing before.
Question #6: If I'm a beginner level lifter w/ less than a year of lifting experience, is this program too challenging, too advanced for me?
Forest Vance: I really tried to put this program together so that anyone of any fitness level could do it and benefit from it.
We rely heavily on the progressions – so for example if I'm just starting off doing a split squat – which is like a lunge variation – might be pretty challenging if I'm doing it slow with the control tempo and feeling the muscle work etc.
Maybe doing a inverted row where I had my feet on the ground I'm doing a pull-up type of motion but I'm lifting a lot less percentage of my body weight, is also challenging enough for me if I'm doing it perfectly with good form etc. to get close to failure.
If this is you this would work great to get you stronger and get you making progress.
Question #7: Explosiveness is HUGE when it comes to getting stronger and gaining muscle mass. Will this kind of training help deliver more explosive force to my lifting?
Forest Vance: For sure. Another thing that we can relate to, we come back to the body awareness, is that for explosiveness and running and jumping and sprinting etc., the ability accelerate your body fast is just as important as the ability to decelerate your body fast. For maximum efficiency of movement but also just being safe.
And that's a big thing that you get out of this program. We teach you how to move properly first and formost.
Question #8: For the older dudes (hahaha…I'm almost 40:) in the 40-60 age range, is this type of training too hard on our joints? In other words, do the risks outweigh the benefits for more mature guys?
Forest Vance: I would say that this type of training is actually the best type of training that "older guys" should be doing.
I can tell you that I feel way better then back in the day when I used to lift heavy and do back squats and deadlifts and military presses and bench presses on a daily basis.
Now I am cycling through and still including some of the stuff, but also including a lot of the bodyweight stuff, and it has decreased my pain increased my range of motion baby much more flexible and supple and everything other things you can imagine.
Question #9: Does this program really apply to higher level athletes? Is someone in the 18-25 age range really going to benefit from training like this when barbells, dumbbells, prowlers and 40 yard dashes seem to be more important?
Forest Vance: You know honestly it does truly depend on a person's goals and what type of sport involved in.
For people who are really trying to get gigantic and huge and swole, I would recommend including barbell work at some stage in their training.That being said, like we already mentioned, doing the bodyweight stuff is also super important to learn how to do movements properly – like for example you would want to make sure that you can do a perfect bodyweight squat and a perfect push-up before you squat and bench.
We train some kids – and when I say that I mean high school kids – at my gym, and what we see a lot of times is that they are doing things like back squat and bench presses when they can't even do a bodyweight squat or lung or even do a handstand hold against the wall … and this is such a mistake.
We back them up and have them perfect the body weight stuff and typically see their lifts go through the roof.
Question #10: Share with us what you feel are the TOP 3 most valuable elements of your Body Weight Strong 2.0 system? Why are these 3 things so crucial to the success of this 12 week program and gaining real strength?
Forest Vance: Number one is the ability to get a fantastic strength workout almost anywhere with very minimal equipment.
Once you learn how to use your body properly and do some these advanced bodyweight movements, you can really get a strength training workout at home in your garage on the hotel room wherever – which for most people probably wasn't possible before. I know for me personally, before I learn these techniques I'd have to go to the gym to get a great workout and I don't anymore.
Number two is that if people like heavy training and they like training for strength and muscle, this is such a great break for their body and out and it will make them feel better and refresh and also it'll improve their left when I do come back to doing the regular training.
Number three is it makes you such a more balanced athlete if you have control and ability to do all these basic bodyweight movements like full below parallel squats, perfect push-ups, all different types of one variations, handstand hold against the wall, etc. this is the type of training that once you can do this and ALSO be strong in the more traditional lifts … it makes you a true beast at the end of the day!
Amazing!!! Thank you so much Forest for your insights, passion and overall knowledge. Without question, this approach to strength training will yield phenomenal results and benefit a ton of guys (& gals) out there looking to drive their performance to a NEW level.
Many Thanks and Stay Strong my Friend!
Coach Chris


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Department Of Education Human Resources
Department Of Education Human Resources, The Office of Human Resources (OHR) provides leadership and direction in the formulation and implementation of policies, programs, and systems to promote efficient and effective federal workforce management and provides operational support for the lifecycle of employment for employees of the Department of Education.
Office of Human Resources
The Office of Human Resources (OHR) provides leadership and direction in the formulation and implementation of policies, programs, and systems to promote efficient and effective federal workforce management and provides operational support for the lifecycle of employment for employees of the Department of Education. OHR represents the Department of Education on strategic workforce management matters with the Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget, other Federal agencies, the Congress and the public.
OHR is headed the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), who also serves as a Director, and reports to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management.
The CHCO provides leadership and advice on matters affecting strategic human capital planning, workforce management, programs, policies, accountability, and reporting; and serves as the principal contact for the Department with OPM and on workforce management activities with OMB. Responsibilities include formulating and executing departmental human resources and human capital management strategic planning, human resources and organizational management policies and programs, and employee and organizational learning and development. The CHCO monitors the Department's human capital management performance by evaluating and auditing the results of its policies, operations, and programs for compliance with merit systems principles and human resources assessment and accountability framework, identifying and reporting on necessary improvements, and monitoring corrective actions.
In performing its responsibilities, OHR:
- Promotes merit system principles to maintain the traditional values of the Federal civil service system to ensure integrity, continuity, nonpartisanship, and equal employment opportunity.
- Advises the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and other senior leaders on workforce management and talent acquisition and retention strategies that further the goals and objectives of the Department.
- Advises on strategic workforce management, talent acquisition and retention, employee and organizational development, and keeps abreast of innovations in the areas of human resources and organizational effectiveness.
- Identifies and develops strategic initiatives to support transformational workforce and organizational management to advance Departmental strategic goals and mission accomplishment.
- Identifies and implements new service and other delivery alternatives to advance the Department's strategic management of human capital and organizational initiatives.
- Establishes and advises on strategic workforce planning with management officials within the Department.
- Ensures that Federal and Departmental workforce and labor management goals, policies, and practices are communicated to all levels of management and employees.
- Evaluates the effectiveness and compliance of human resources programs.
- Develops, tests, implements, and evaluates new human resources information systems for processing personnel and pay data to satisfy Departmental information requirements, including position management, accounting, accession data, employee and pay records systems, and payroll accounting.
Deputy, Human Resources Services
A Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer reports directly to the CHCO and serves as an alternate to the CHCO on operational aspects of human resource services, and works with Human Resources Business Partners (HRBPs) to ensure that hiring officials are able to efficiently and effectively recruit, hire, and manage the federal workforce to meet mission needs. The Deputy serves as strategic partner, leader, and technical human resources expert to manage those who oversee functions and activities related to: talent management; recruitment and hiring; special emphasis initiatives/programs; labor and employee management relations; performance management; benefits and work/life; payroll and information systems; boards and councils; senior level and science and technology professionals; political appointees; and the senior executive service.
The Deputy manages the following Divisions, each of which is managed by a Director:
Human Capital Policy and Accountability Division
The Human Capital Policy and Accountability Division (HCPAD is responsible for developing human resources management policies for the administration of the Department's human capital management initiatives to efficiently and effectively attract, recruit, develop, and retain a high-quality, productive workforce for the Department in accordance with merit systems principles. HCPAD is responsible for the development of the Department's human capital management strategic plan. HCPAD manages and implements the Department's Human Capital Accountability System through evaluation, measurement, data collection, and oversight of improvement plans and reports; conducts periodic and ad hoc accountability audits and reviews of human resources practices to ensure compliance with law, regulation, policies, and prescribed practices. HCPAD is also responsible for overseeing reorganizations and delegations of authority and documenting them. HCPAD develops, tests, implements, and evaluates human resources information systems; provides coordination with the Department's shared services provider for personnel and payroll processing; conducts periodic and ad hoc analytical studies and provides reports to management for improving workforce management; conducts business process reviews and prepares process maps and supporting documentation to improve business operations in OHR; and provides project management support for enterprise OHR support services contracts and interagency agreements.
Executive Resources Division
The Executive Resources Division (ERD) provides operational support to the Department for the recruitment and management of executive positions, career and non-career. ERD provides the full range of human resources management for Presidential Appointees, Senior Executive Service members, Schedule C employees, Senior Level (SL) and Scientific and Technology (ST) professionals, Administratively Determined (AD) senior-level positions, experts, consultants, and Intergovernmental Personnel Act program personnel. ERD assists the Secretary and the Executive Resources and Performance Review Boards in managing the Department's executive resources and the senior executive and senior level pay-for-performance systems.
Talent, Recruitment and Hiring Division
The Talent, Recruitment and Hiring Division (TRHD) provide operational support to the Department in the areas of staffing and classification, recruitment, student employment, and special hiring initiatives. TRHD processes recruitment actions using appropriate systems and following merit system principles, laws and regulations, policies, and instructions to provide hiring officials with certificates of eligible candidates for consideration and performs the operational functions of processing personnel and pay actions/data to satisfy Departmental information requirements, including position accounting, accession data, employee and pay records systems, and payroll accounting.
Workforce Relations Division
The Workforce Relations Division (WRD) provides operational support to the Department in the areas of performance management, awards, benefits administration, work life program, labor relations, conduct and discipline, reasonable accommodations, and grievances. WRD also carries out Executive Order 13164, "Requiring Federal Agencies to Establish Procedures to Facilitate the Provision of Reasonable Accommodation" (July 26, 2000). WRD provides advice and operational support for the Department's employee performance management programs, including appraisals, awards and administration of employee benefits, workers compensation, and workforce management programs, such as alternative work schedules, benefits, and telework/flexiplace programs, and oversees and manages employee assistance program services to promote healthy work/life balance. WRD is the primary point-of-contact for labor relations for the Department; provides labor relations advice and assistance to all levels of Department management in support of strategic plans and other objectives of the Department and in alignment with the Collective Bargaining Agreement; assists in improving coordination, information dissemination and outreach between labor, management, and employees; acts in partnership with Principal Offices to administer the Department's negotiated labor agreement and provides appropriate technical advice to ED employees, union leaders, managers and supervisors in the administration and interpretation of the agreement.
Learning and Development Division
The Learning and Development Division (LDD) manages the Department's human capital efforts in the areas of organizational and employee development. LDD performs competency assessments to identify agency priorities for employee training and development, and consults on leadership succession management and provides oversight of leadership development programs to address competency development. LDD is responsible for developing and implementing the Department's Workforce plan. LDD provides managers with advice and assistance with organizational development needs, such as employee engagement, action planning in response to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, organizational improvement and effectiveness, and employee suggestions, and provides operational oversight of training and development infrastructure, contracts, and external training programs in support of Department workforce development needs. The Director of the Division also serves as the Department's Chief Learning Officer.


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Obama White House Is 'Most Secretive,' NYT Editor Says
The administration of President Barack Obama is the most secretive she has ever had to deal with, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, complained in an interview with Al Jazeera.
The Obama White House, Abramson said, "is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering," noting that she has covered every White House since President Ronald Reagan.
"I dealt directly with the Bush White House," she added, "when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. But, you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations.
"The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It's on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with."
When asked if she thinks the secrecy comes directly from Obama, Abramson answered, "I would think that it would have to. I don't know that, but certainly enough attention has been focused on this issue that, if he departed from the policies of his government, I think we'd know that at this point."
In talking about examples of leak investigations, Abramson mentioned the case of New York Times reporter James Risen.
The Justice Department under Obama has tried to force Risen to testify about one of his alleged sources, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is being tried for espionage. Risen may appeal his case to the Supreme Court.
Risen "has had this leak investigation hanging over his head for years now," Abramson complained.
The interview was not the first time Abramson complained about how the Obama White House deals with the press. In an interview about the Justice Department last June, she expressed concern that "the process of news gathering is being criminalized."
Abramson was also asked whether or not the NYT is a liberal newspaper. She answered that it is not liberal in a "doctrinaire" sense and it is not tied to the Democratic Party, but it does have a "cosmopolitan outlook to the world ... that may strike .... some readers as liberal ... ."
The full interview will air Sunday on Al Jazeera America.


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This project is complete and all audio files can be found in the catalogue https://librivox.org/short-poetry-collection-247-by-various/
This is an open collection of poems read in English for the month of December 2023. When this month is over, another one will be started. Don't despair if the sections are all filled up! I will add more sections as needed.
- How to record a poem - Initial Guidelines:
• All poems read must be in the public domain (that is, not copyrighted).
• You do not have to "sign-up" to submit a poem; as long as it's clearly in the public domain, just start recording!
• There is a limit of 3 poems per person per collection, one poem per recording.
• Poems can be as short as you like, but not longer than 74 minutes (so as to fit in an audio CD)
• To see what's been recorded already, you can search the LibriVox Catalog - but remember that we welcome multiple versions! - Find a public domain poem:
• Project Gutenberg is the preferred text source, so first check if your chosen poem can be found there.
• The Poets' Corner and Bartleby are also great resources for public domain poetry.
• You may use other websites if you like, but they need to state date of publication (or book edition) to verify public domain status.
• Please read from the text you post! You may not read from another source, as the other source may not be public domain!
• See this page for more info on copyrights. You can always ask me in this thread if you're not sure whether a poem is public domain. - BEFORE recording:
• If you are new to LibriVox, please check the Recording Notes thread first.
• If this is your first time recording, you'll find this useful as well: The Newbie Guide to Recording.
• Set your recording software to:
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz (44100 Hz)
Channels: 1 (Mono) - DURING recording:
• At the beginning of the recording, leave no more than one second of silence and read the abbreviated "LibriVox disclaimer":
"[Poem title], by [author], read for LibriVox dot org by [your name]" or some variation on that, adding (if you wish) date, location.
• Then read the poem.
• At the end, say: "End of poem. This recording is in the public domain." and leave five seconds of silence.
• No recordings can be accepted without the LibriVox disclaimer. - AFTER recording:
• ID3 tags: Not needed for this project.
• Save file as:
spc247_[poem's title in short form - no leading articles]_[your initials]_128kb.mp3
Put file name all in lowercase, and the title all in one word (no leading articles - the, a, an, without the square brackets, please, and NO SPACES):
e.g. spc247_roadnottaken_apc_128kb.mp3
When submitting, please post in the thread, following this template:[Title of Poem] by [Author] (BIRTH-DEATH)
Text URL:
MP3 URL: - Upload your completed recording:
• Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader:
(If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: Rapunzelina
• When your upload is complete, you will receive a link. Please click "Post Reply" at the top left of this thread, and post the link there.
• Also post the following information:- The title and author of the poem.
- A link to the poem's text online (Poets' Corner, Bartleby, Gutenberg, etc.) so it can be verified as public domain. Please READ FROM the text you post!
- The length of your recording in minutes & seconds.
- If this is your first recording for LibriVox, please give us your name as you'd like it to appear in the catalog (that is, either your real name or some pseudonym). Also let us know if you have a personal URL you'd like to list (e.g. a personal blog).
Magic Window:
BC Admin
Any questions?
Please post below or PM me.


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By Typodermic
Desperate is a punk, post-punk, new wave, Reagan-punk font. It is ideally suited for products intended to be used by the elderly. OpenType savvy applications will automatically crank out unruly ligatures for 248 letter combinations. Desperate contains OpenType numeric ordinals and fractions as well as math symbols making it ideally suited for math textbooks and scientific journals.


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Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has a book deal to provide a "behind-the-scenes" account of the U.S. financial crisis
Few Treasury secretaries received as much attention as former secretary, Timothy Geithner, who has been praised for helping prevent a second Great Depression, but criticized for being too friendly to banks and other financial institutions. He will draw upon his experience at the Treasury during the first term of the Obama administration and his previous job as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he served from 2003-2009.
Geithner has an agreement with Crown Publishers, an imprint of Random House, Inc. Crown announced Thursday that Geithner's book, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2014.
According to Crown, Geithner will write about his work with President Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other top officials.
"Secretary Geithner will chronicle how decisions were made during the most harrowing moments of the crisis, when policy makers faced a fog of uncertainty, risked catastrophic outcomes, and had no institutional memory or recent precedent to guide them," Crown's statement reads.
"Secretary Geithner will aim to answer the most important — and to many the most troubling — questions about the choices he and his colleagues made, the strategies they adopted, and the economic aftermath. By describing what went right, what went wrong and the lessons learned along the way, Secretary Geithner intends to provide a 'play book' that future policy makers can draw on and that the public can use to understand how and why governments act in crisis."
Geithner, 51, stepped down in January as Treasury secretary and was succeeded by Jack Lew.
Financial terms for Geithner's book were not disclosed. Geithner was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who has negotiated deals for Obama, former President Clinton and Geithner's predecessor at the Treasury, Henry Paulson. Obama's best-selling "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" also were published by Crown.


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DEVIN TOWNSEND Interviewed In Sacramento (Video)
January 27, 2013Jessica Wabbit of Rock Hard Live conducted an interview with Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend before his January 24 concert at Ace Of Spades in Sacramento, California with GOJIRA. You can now watch the chat below.
"Epicloud", the latest album from Devin Townsend to be released under the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT banner, was issued on September 18, 2012 in North America and September 24, 2012 in Europe via InsideOut Music. The CD features a guest appearance by former THE GATHERING frontwoman and previous Devin collaborator Anneke Van Giersbergen.
"Epicloud" is available in the following formats: standard CD jewel case; limited-edition digipack with bonus CD; double vinyl gatefold with an exclusive bonus track; and digital download on iTunes with two exclusive bonus tracks, "Cry Forever" (demo) and "Take My Ego" (demo).
The idea for "Epicloud" came about while Devin was attempting to write material for the follow-up to his 2007 "Ziltoid The Omniscient" concept album about a fictional extraterrestrial being named Ziltoid from the planet Ziltoidia 9.
Regarding the musical direction of "Epicloud", Devin told Noisecreep, "Over the course of the full record, there's sort of new agey stuff, jazzy stuff, really heavy stuff. We basically cover the gamut. 'Epicloud' is the first record that I felt confident enough to include all those things on one record so it goes between melodic hard rock to schizophrenic heavy metal to country to really ambient stuff and it's all in one place. I'm using a gospel choir, a string section and a horn section for this one as well. On [the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT album] 'Deconstruction', I got to use the Prague Philharmonic [orchestra] and really go far into making an absurd album as over the top as possible and on 'Epicloud' I'm trying to take the same advantages to make some things musically very pleasing, as opposed to just claustrophobic."


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[dropcap]J[/dropcap]osé Mourinho's assertion that the £300 million he has spent since taking the Manchester United job in 2016 is "not enough" to compete in the Premier League is easy to mock. After all, he has been afford more investment in less than two full seasons than David Moyes or Louis van Gaal before him. More, indeed, than Sir Alex Ferguson over the Scots final few seasons at United. Yet, in the context of Manchester City's generation of heavy spending, the Portuguese may well be right, though it hardly explains all United's ills. How the club spends its money is far more of a challenge to bridging the gap to the rampant Blues.
Mourinho's comments came after the Reds' second draw inside a week; two games that once again exposed the frailties present in United's squad almost five years since Ferguson's retirement. The Reds were hugely disappointing in dropping points against Leicester City and Burnley, while the recent cup loss to Bristol City opened up yet more questions about the level of progress under Mourinho.
[blockquote who="" cite=""]Mourinho's assertion that the £300 million he has spent since taking the United job is "not enough" is easy to mock.[/blockquote]
Inside Old Trafford Mourinho enjoys support, as did Moyes and Van Gaal before him. The atmosphere is far from as feted as the one that greeted the Dutchman two years ago when United lost four on the bounce in December. Yet, the doubts remain. Progress has come, with the team 10 points better off than at this stage than last season and Mourinho has also brought home two major trophies in his time at United.
But context, with City running away with the league, is king. United's ascent is neither fast nor substantial enough for some, especially given that the club employs a manager who is both increasingly moody and and reluctant to ditch his ultra-negative tactics when it comes to the biggest games.
For his part, Mourinho blames the quality of his players and the level of investment sanctioned by the club for any failings. He is not one for introspection, although it is not a message that has received widespread support.
"It is not enough," Mourinho argued after United's draw with Burnley. "The price for the big clubs is different from the other clubs. So the big, historical clubs are normally punished in the market for that history. When you speak about big football clubs, you are speaking about the history of the club."
It is, of course, precisely United's size and history that attracts an army of sponsors and broadcasters to pour money into the club. Now generating more than £500 million in revenue each season, investment in players and wages has increased substantially since Ferguson's departure. No longer as hamstrung by the vast debt laid on the club by the Glazer family, United was supposed to have spent its way out of trouble by now.
"One thing is a big club and another thing is a big football team," adds Mourinho. "They are two different things. We are in the second year of trying to rebuild a football team that is not one of the best teams in the world. Manchester City buy full-backs for the price of strikers."
Still, since Ferguson left in 2013 United has spent £700 million in the transfer market, a figure that is only City, Paris Saint Germain, Real Madrid and Barcelona have beaten in world football*. It leaves an obvious conclusion: that perhaps it is not United's level of investment that is the greatest challenge, but the players acquired, the method used, and the managers appointed to get the most out of money spent.
Indeed, after two disastrous appointments in Moyes and Van Gaal – the first horribly out of his depth, the second fundamentally at odds with United's "history" of attacking football – the club is paying a very heavy price to rebuild. On the pitch Moyes and Van Gaal, together withs executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, recruited 14 senior players at a gross cost of £385 million in transfer fees alone. There are none surviving that era who can be classified as an unequivocal success.
United's summer of change in 2013 is still felt deeply, both the loss of Ferguson and CEO David Gill, and what came next. There were many words written about United's transfer strategy in that summer, Moyes' first in charge, but few of them were positive. The club's propensity for generating ridicule was impressive, from the time the window opened in late May, to a touch over 100 days later when United over-spent to acquire Marouanne Fellaini.
In between there was a level of amateurish tomfoolery that left supporters' overwhelmed with relief when the summer came to an end – that Woodward could cause embarrassment no longer. Strung along by Thiago Alcântara's inevitable decision to join Bayern Munich, and humiliated by Cesc Fabregas' manipulation of United's interest, Woodward's dash home from Australia in mid-July 2013 became the butt of a thousand memes – and heralded six weeks of maladroit bumbling.
United submitted barely credible bids for Fabregas, just after his Barcelona understudy Alcântara's arrival in southern Germany. The club followed a similar strategy in its pursuit of Everton left-back Leighton Baines, lowballing offers that were quickly rebuffed. Woodward and United's army of lawyers, agents and middlemen tried and failed to activate a buy-out clause in Ander Herrera's contract, the Shakespearean farce ending in "imposters" visiting the Spanish FA to wrap up a non-existent deal. And the summer ended with a tsunami of reported bids for, among others, Daniele De Rossi, Fábio Coentrão and, as the player revealed, Sami Khedira. Juan Mata arrived the following January, but by then Moyes' time was already winding down.
[blockquote who="" cite=""]It is to the agent-led approach that the club has turned. One that brings players through the door, but comes at a heavy price in terms of fees paid.[/blockquote]
Van Gaal stimulated a larger flurry of transfer activity, the Board backing the Dutchman in a fashion that Moyes never enjoyed. Ángel Di María, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind and Falcao joined in a spend that totalled more than £160 million in 2014. The strategy changed too, with United ditching Woodward's direct negotiation, and leveraging 'super agent' Jorge Mendes to land Di María, Rojo and Falcao.
Indeed, it is to the agent-led approach that the club has turned since, one that brings players through the door, but at a heavy price in terms of fees paid to Mendes, Mino Raiola, and others.
United's structure has not evolved though. Where Ferguson's albeit now outdated network of contacts and scouts was once the envy of many, United has become a pawn in other actors' games. Down the road at City, the Blues have little compunction in voicing a belief that the club's transfer policy is superior to United's. After all, City employs a Director of Football in Txixi Begiristain who is well-connected in Europe and beyond. At Old Trafford, the manager has the final say, and agents take home big fees. Van Gaal and then Mourinho have each tried to shape the squad in their vision, with little connecting the dots between.
The transfer policy has brought little in the way of success. Van Gaal's second season brought in Anthony Martial, Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sergio Romero. It says much that only three remain at the club, and only Martial has any legitimate claim on a place in the first team. Even then, the Frenchman's vast talent is only intermittently employed.
Recruitment has improved under Mourinho, and despite the Portuguese's protestations, he has been well-backed. The Reds turned once again to Raiola last summer, bringing in Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelöf have followed. That's more than £300 million in backing, including potential add-ons and agent fees. There are millions more committed in wages. As of November, United had the third largest wage bill in Europe.
Yet, there's a strong sense both that Mourinho is not getting the most out of his squad, or that the club enjoys the right structure to guarantee success should yet more millions be released for transfers. After all, for all Mourinho's gruff moodiness, petulant inability to take responsibility for his own failings, the club probably ranks no better than a C+ for recruitment since Ferguson's retirement. It's a damming thought.
[supsystic-tables id=46]
*All data sourced from Transfermarkt.co.uk


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Windows Phone Central 160 - Lumia 925, 928 and HTC woes
Holy cow, we're back! Yes folks, after some weeks of even more weary travel and scheduling conflicts, Jay Bennett and myself return for another 90 minute podcast on all things Windows Phone. Tune in for our thoughts on the latest apps, games, and what Nokia has been up to. Plus we take your questions!
Stream the audio above or the HD video after the break or use our app, your pick.
- Stream with the Official WPCentral App
- Download it directly with this link
- Watch the HD video above
- Subscribe on your Zune
- Subscribe via iTunes
- Subscribe directly to the Podcast feed with your favorite Podcatcher here
- Listen to it here with the flash player above.
Windows Phone Central podcast, episode 160 for 22 May, 2013
Conversation this week
- The Lumia Lineup completed by the 925
- Memory gap: 512MB devices are looking increasingly limited
The news you care about
- Xbox One
- Want to go to New York?
- HTC Product chief departs the company
Apps worth your attention
- Mass Effect Infiltrator amoungst a slew of Nokia exclusive games
- Itsdagram
- Drag Racing
- Events near me - Eventbrite app
- Windows 8: Photoshop express
- Comments from last time
- Live questions and comments
You can find us all on Twitter @wpcentral, @daniel_rubino, @coppertop004,
@RichEdmonds, @JayTBennett, @PaulRAcevedo, @Big_D5, @samsabri, @marcham93
This has been a Mobile Nations podcast, go to Mobilenations.com for more great shows covering everything mobile, or head over to the WPCentral Forums if you'd like to get involved with our community in discussing more about Windows Phone news, devices and apps.
Thanks to the WPCentral Store for sponsoring the podcast. Thanks also to these great artists for the music and to CCMixter.org for offering a great database of Creative Commons music!
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.


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Jan 1, 2012 8:48 PM
January 2012 Edition
Happy New Years Everyone =)
We have a couple of new polls up now which we have the Character and Team of the Month for February 2012 which you can vote for by visiting the following links.
Character of the Month
Team of the Month
Also we started nominations to choose the best Naruto couples for Valentines day. To nominate your favorite couples please visit the following linK:
Naruto Couples Nominations
To get this club up and more active again we are looking for members who are interested in helping us with different tasks in the club. If you have lots of spare time, are on MAL almost every day and interested in joining one of the staff openings please feel free to PM one of the admins on which tasks you're interested in. Here's some of the staff openings that are available now:
Newsletter Team – This is the area we need the most help. Job of being on the newsletter team is to send letters out to the members of the fan club. Were looking for at least 15 members or more to help us out with this task since sending letters to nearly 5000 members takes a long time for only one person alone.
Member Card Makers - If you have some graphic experience, we need your help with making Member ID Cards and sending them out to members that request for one.
Club Recruiters – Looking for a least a couple of members who are interested to help inviting members to the club that are interested in the Naruto series.
Again please PM me or one the other admins if you are interested in one of the positions above.
Thanks =)


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I was never a jewelry kind of girl (before), so that is perhaps why I've never sat down to create that kind of stuff to wear. It was just not interesting to me, because I didn't need any of that. Earrings makes my ears itch and I'm not good at matching a necklace with what I will be wearing so I don't. I just usually skip that part of dressing. But maybe all that will change now? I don't know yet, though I now have found yet another hobby that I love!
Look at this photo (courtesy of my brother) and take a wild guess what my new hobby is?
What happened was that mom got a really cool book about beads for her birthday last year. We both liked the stuff that was featured in this book and decided to sit down and make something from it! We especially liked the heart, shaped with metallic jewelry thread, so we started with those instructions and gathered both our stashes of beads, pearls, strings and trinkets…
I've read several books about beading and I love how beautiful and inspiring they all are. But the one that got me curious is called Smycken du kan g?ra sj?lv and is written by Annika Larsson. It's nothing special about it, except those hearts… They are fabulous!
We have been sitting for several evenings and creating mostly necklaces but also some bracelets. I haven't taken proper photos of my creations yet because I've been busy a couple of nights creating them, sitting by the kitchen table. I have used beads in many projects before, like on my art dolls, but like I said, this material now has a new meaning to me. Jewelery!
Mom has a lot of different beads, mostly plastic ones, and a whole range of different colored rocaille beads that she use for her knitted wrist warmers. They are tiny but looks great in between bigger ones! My favorite this time was the red ones in this box:
The first thing I made was this heart – all wrapped in gorgeous red beads! They are both fun and easy to make. After this one I couldn't stop and continued to make more necklaces in other colors.
And as easy as that I was hooked!
I don't believe people who say "stick to one thing until you know it", hehe. I don't know nada and I'm having so much fun in the process of discovering new materials and techniques. So I say, craft on everybody!
Is there something you have wanted to try, like, for ever? I have a long list, and it is growing by the minute!


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Jian Lin Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
December 18, 2008
Jian Lin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
Lin, a marine geophysicist and senior scientist in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at WHOI, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for his outstanding contributions to seismology and marine tectonics.
"This recognition confirms the high esteem for Jian and his research among colleagues around the world," said WHOI President and Director Susan Avery. "His tireless work, accomplishments, and leadership have not only advanced our knowledge of marine tectonics, but also the cause of global scientific collaboration for the benefit of all. He brings honor to our Institution."
Lin has conducted pioneering research on earthquake interactions and global ocean ridge processes. He serves as chair of the InterRidge Science Program, which coordinates international cooperation in research and exploration of the deep-sea geology, biology, and hydrothermal venting of mid-ocean ridges. Lin is also a member of a U.S. national committee on tsunami warning and preparedness. Appointed by the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences, the committee conducts review of the U.S. tsunami warning and forecast system and overview of the nation's tsunami preparedness.
Lin is among 486 members this year who have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow to honor their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The new fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin on February 14 at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.
"For all recognitions like election as an AAAS fellow, it is important to emphasize that our work is the result of collaborations with many talented students and with a large number of outstanding and dedicated scientists in the U.S. and throughout the world," said Lin.
Lin earned a B.S. in geophysics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1982, and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Brown University in 1988. He joined WHOI as a scientist in 1988 and has led U.S. and international expeditions to the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans to investigate deep-sea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, underwater faulting and earthquakes, and tsunamis.
"I deeply appreciate the stimulating intellectual environment and the freedom I have at WHOI to pursue multiple research interests, both on land and at sea," Lin said.
AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science. Founded in 1848, AAAS includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment.


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Advantage Portable Toilet Rental, based in Rochester MN, specializes in providing efficient and reliable portable toilet rental services to various events and construction sites. The company offers a wide range of portable toilets and restroom trailers to cater to the diverse needs of their clients. Advantage Portable Toilet Rental is dedicated to providing excellent customer service, timely delivery and a comfortable restroom experience for their clients, regardless of the location or event. The company takes pride in its professionalism, attention-to-detail, and dedication to meeting each client's unique needs.
Rochester may refer to:
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Whitney Kimball: As we discussed in our last post, the maiden voyage of NADA NYC was jam-packed. The old Dia building housed over seventy exhibitors in the traditional booth format, which felt like twenty booths too many. It's not an ideal place for art-viewing, but, well, whatever; it was a three-day art fair. Here are some fun things a handful of galleries did with the closet spaces.
Paddy Johnson: Actually, neither Corinna nor I thought NADA was *that* crammed full of art. This may have been the difference of when we saw the fairs—you visited Friday during the opening, and we visited Sunday, when it was pretty quiet. Sure, there were a number of über narrow booths, but I don't think the situation diminished the fair in any way.
Anthony Espino: Well, a lot of the galleries wanted to show several artists rather than one, and often the space that they had didn't suit that decision.
Corinna Kirsch: Sure, some of the hallways, like that corner for Regina Rex, were narrow, but it's not like I couldn't move around. And given these restraints, the galleries knew how to handle issues of scale. I mean, The Journal brought only one painting. That was a good idea.
Will Brand: One size-based problem I noticed was with the few galleries that brought neon; you just can't read neon from five feet away. Certain types of work that are super common at the big fairs—I think of neon, but also of large-scale painting—don't work as well in a space without long sight lines or big spaces. The counterpoint might be Martos Gallery, who brought a rainbow of large-scale monochromes that covered their booth from top to bottom. Those looked good.
Whitney: John Riepenhoff at Chicago's Western Exhibitions seems to have installed a wall in the middle of the booth to create a hallway, next to the emergency exit, so there were some galleries that benefited from the small space. For obvious reasons, this was a fitting spot for paintings held up from behind by legs in work pants and sneakers. The legs are sold separately.
Paddy: Yeah, that's because these are casts of Riepenhoff's legs by Riepenhoff; they're meant to literally demonstrate the artist and gallery director's support of artists. I dunno. You really have to care a lot about one person's work as a director to buy their legs. The work's funny, but I don't think the self-aware navel gazing totally clears the navel gazing.
Will: Pffffft. Which is to say, I concur. I don't think the wall in the booth was Western Exhibitions's idea, though—I'm betting that was just sold as a small booth.
Whitney: C L E A R I N G jammed a table in their booth, and now we can't see anything.
Corinna: I just walked past this booth because I wasn't floored by their exhibition design. Although Corbett vs. Dempsey didn't have a table, that gallery did have one of my favorite elements of domesticity: Diane Simpson's muff-covered mahoghany rod was one of the best perspective-altering things at NADA.
Whitney: Feature Inc. combined a variety of artists with Richard Kern photos of girls smoking pot; the one above was flanked by B. Wurtz yoghurt lids. The spontaneous arrangement feels like a stoner move. It makes the Wurtz's feel like stoner items, which fits with the other artworks in the booth. I like that. Wurtz may be one of the bigger names at this fair, but this is still strung-together recycling. Similar to Wurtz's repurposed detritus, Sam Gordon's "Sweepings," which hangs directly above a Kern smoker, is a collage of sweepings mounted on plexiglass.
Paddy: That woman in smoke is fantastic and I overheard several people at the fair talking about how good it was. There's something totally badass about being asked to model and then blowing so much smoke in the photographers face that a clear shot can't be had. She doesn't care.
This B. Wurtz/Kern arrangement isn't bad, but honestly, that woman could held have that wall and then some all on her own. I guess it's harder to sell the Wurtz, though, if you don't hang it.
Whitney: Klaus von Nichtssagend opted for complementary pairings of similarly-sized images. This served individual works really well. They all held their own on the wall, and they didn't compete with each other.
Paddy: I thought David Gilbert's tacked-up photographs of blobby things inside his studio was a bit sloppy given the fastidiousness of the photographs, but I maybe changed my mind on this when I was told that he does this as a means of conceptually keeping them in his studio. Collectors just frame them anyway, but it's nice to see that there's a back and forth at play in the way the artist addresses his work. Anyway, I enjoyed that so much time was put into photographs of pretty ugly stuff, and I liked that they were hung beside Jonah Koppel's geometric abstractions, which despite all their textured painting somehow end up looking like they were run through a printer. What a success.
Corinna: If nothing else, I liked that black-and-white Glen Baldridge work you can see in the left-hand corner of this photo. It had the type of all-over sumptuousness that kept me looking, trying to find rhythms and patterns in that little galaxy.
Whitney: I wasn't sold on the bookish aesthetic at Berlin galleries Croy Nielsen and Aanant & Zoo, where it's all about black-and-white, stripes, grids, and moire patterns. From afar, it looks like a bunch of Mousse Magazine and e-flux pages silkscreened together to make something that vaguely resembles reading, or sheet music. I have the feeling that if there's more to it than the impenetrable surface, it's an extravagant inside joke.
Anthony: I couldn't help but think of Seth Price's Dispersion pieces while looking at these. Also, I think Schumacher is exhausting the splashes of airbrushed plaster. The work is ubiquitous and starting to give off a one-trick pony vibe despite the fact that Schumacher's oeuvre promises an eclectic use of materials.
Will: Yeah, there's absolutely some Seth Price in there. They're really appealing text-gloop-thingies; I want one, and I'm sure plenty of collectors do, too. I liked Schumacher's sculpture at Croy Nielsen much better than the very similar ones he showed at Stadium and Jason Alexander Gallery recently. We should also note that in addition to being at NADA, Schumacher was also at Bortolami's booth at Frieze; apparently they just added him to the stable. Dude is blowing up right now.
Corinna: I liked Schumacher's work. As Anthony mentioned, there's a bit of a one-trick pony thing going on with his splashes, but he does it better than a lot of other people. And what he's doing with these splashes is important: he's tricking your perception by playing around with what's real and what's hyper-real.
Paddy: Oh man, I LOVED this piece. It's a nice nod to Daniel Buren, and that the shadow from the tape completes the form of this work makes the material use very satisfying.
Anthony: I saw a Daniel Buren at Frieze and it was almost the same exact color palette as this Kovachevich piece, making the experience somewhat serendipitous.
Whitney: This year's Life of the Party prize goes to neighbors Derek Eller and Ten Haaf Projects, who are showing Keith Mayerson and Andrew Gilbert, respectively. Both artists' paintings don't suffer too much from being packed together in shallow spaces, and there's a sensitivity about their work that makes these really appealing amidst the grids. It's not just figuration. It's qualities like Mayerson's loving attention to mundane moments and Gilbert's decision to string a bunch of carrots over the threshold that makes these feel human.
Corinna: No, those booths were just too crowded. I've never seen salon-style hanging work well at an art fair.
Paddy: I have. SEVEN's trademark in Miami is their giant salon-hung wall, and it's done perfectly. You want to look at the work for long periods of time; Eller and Ten Haaf did not inspire the same impulse in my opinion.
Whitney: Alden Projects managed to find a Chamberlain small enough for a closet.
Corinna: I was not impressed with a poster booth. It's funny that the only Warhol I'd find at an art fair this weekend would be at NADA.
Anthony: This booth felt like MoMA's gift shop—old works, vintage posters, and sloppily arranged frames. The Baldessari photographs aged the booth even further; who hasn't seen those Baldessari ball-throwing images?
Whitney: There: dick art. Happy, people? Still, there's something about a wiener photobombing perfect digital images that always earns a point in my book.
Corinna: As far as dick art at the fairs, I prefered Tony Matelli's dust paintings at Leo Koenig. His dust paintings usually have some trace of dick on them.
Whitney: Whatever you put next to Agnes Martin will automatically look more expressive, but that works tenfold in Rita Ackermann's case at Franklin Parrasch. On their own, these charcoal figures drawings are not much more compelling than B-grade student work. After staring into an Agnes Martin for five minutes, though, they start to look explosive.
Paddy: Possible curatorial process here: gallerist looks around gallery for work to hang at the fair, realizes he only has enough of similarly themed work by Ackermann and Martin to put together a two artist booth, throws them together for lack of better ideas. Granted, I'm biased—I really don't care for Ackermann's drawings—but still, why put them together with Agnes Martin? These photographs make the booth look waaaaay better than it actually did.
Corinna: Agnes Martin and Rita Ackermann have nothing in common. Still, it's pretty interesting to find an old Agnes Martin sprinkled within NADA's newer work.
Anthony: I have yet to completely understand why anyone cares about Ackermann's charcoal works, but I also feel a bit of guilt while guzzling down the Ackermann Haterade because her new work at The Journal Gallery is really beautiful—a step towards abstraction is a smart choice for the artist, since the formalism is the most interesting trait of this work.
Paddy: On the other hand, this photo doesn't do justice to the sculptural qualities of this work, which somehow now looks like a poorly-organized watercolor. There's a lot of depth and detail to this work that's just lost.
Corinna: Harnischfeger is so good at creating space and depth. All the stuff she piles on a single canvas could easily turn into chaos, but her use of swirls and lines allows for something orderly to take place. I'm a fan.
Anthony: I really enjoyed this painting by Sadie Benning at Callicoon Fine Arts. It's located in the lower corner of the booth, yet it's impossible to miss. I usually dismiss neon monochromes, but there's something about the pairing of red with this particular hue of orange that really worked. I believe Benning spraypaints over plaster to achieve this smooth, porous texture.
Corinna: I loved the fuzzy, leathery texture of these paintings. You really need to get up close to see these little joys.
Paddy: This painting by Alan Reid was hung the outside of the gallery booth, and I liked it so much I actually went searching for the gallery. Reid is part of Lisa Cooley's stable, and it was, in my opinion, the best part of their booth. Do you know what was affixed to the front of the painting?
Anthony: Not sure. A small, three-dimensional, yellow picket fence? It's really perplexing either way. They have a lot of amazing painters to choose from—Michael Bauer, in particular, and also Frank Haines. I don't know why those two particular paintings were casted out into exile on the outside of the booth, and where the hell was Jon Pestoni's work? At Frieze, David Kordansky gallery chose to single out Pestoni's large, colorful paintings and it was an amazing collection. Lisa Cooley could have had an eclectic booth filled with contemporary painting—I had to look at Andy Coolquitt's lighters instead.


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MAKE regular Mike Pantrey, aka Mrsuperpants, returns with this cool page about building on-the-cheap DIY versions of the commercial systems used to make foam and/or "snow" for video, photo, and event special effects. He describes three iterations of his homemade CAFS and a method for making colored foam. [Thanks, Mike!]
Support Make:
Join Make: Community Today
Join Make: Community Today


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Stop by and enter the contest for Across the East River Bridge by Kate McMurray! Contest closes 7 pm CDT, October 10.
Congrats to Helena, who won Life Over Limb (EMS Heat #11) by Stephani Hecht! Life Over Limb will be released by eXtasy Books on October 1.
- To win your choice of two books from LA Witt's backlist, answer her question in the comments of the contest post by October 5.
- Joder's giving away a dvd copy of the third season of Fringe. Become a follower and comment by 11:59 pm, October 8, for your chance to win. US only.
- Book Lovers Inc is giving away three different prizes (m/f erotic romance ebooks by Gracen Miller, plus a skull cameo pendant/pin for the first place winner). Comment through October 8 for your chance to win.
- New releases and more: Elisa (GLBT), Tor.com (YA SFF, UF/PNR/horror, fantasy, scifi), Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog (a little of everything), and Book Lovers Inc (a bit of everything).
- It's Banned Books Week, and the Mary Sue notes that "women authors and books for young women top the ALA's 2010 list of challenged books".
- Wave wonders whether we're hitting saturation in m/m romance. A response. (You can track down many more response posts, too.)
- Miss typewriters, but like the convenience of word processing? Maybe USB Typewriter can help! (Thanks, Bron!)
- The big news this week was the bazillion new Kindles that were announced, including a tablet, the Kindle Fire. Having trouble figuring out which Kindle you should get? This flowchart might help.
Think, Do, Make, Learn
- Deadly food recalls for the week: cantaloupe and ground beef.
- The Washington Monument is shut down indefinitely while engineers assess how badly it was damaged by the earthquake.
- The North American Dialect Map is fun to explore. The heavy MinneSOHtah accents you heard in Fargo? You'll find them in the Iron Range Dialect Area in northern Minnesota. (Thanks, Bron!)
- Kitty donuts! (Thanks, Seanna!)
- For Doctor Who fans, the Master's pocket watch also has gifting potential. (via The Mary Sue)
Cool or Wha…?
- A vintage Mickey & Minnie Mouse ad for milk… (Thanks, Seanna!)
- The Princess Bride Monopoly (sadly not a real product). (via The Mary Sue)
Teh Cute
- Kittens! Albino hummingbird! Kitten! Baby red pandas! Kitten! Baby leopard! Kitten! Baby Tasmanian devils! Kitten! Lioness and cubs! Kitten! Cygnets! Baby fennec fox! Many baby pandas! Red panda and babies! Baby pandas! Otter and babies!
Reading Update
Woke Up in a Strange Place by Eric Arvin. ebook. Very good fantasy m/m story about a man who wakes up in the afterlife, with no memory of his prior life, and, with the help of a cryptic guide, begins a journey to recover his memories and make his peace with the significant people from his life.
Blood Howl by Robin Saxon & Alex Kidwell. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a guy, formerly Special Forces, who now offers those skills for hire. When a job goes in an unexpected direction, he has no idea how much his world is about to change… If a few more questions had been answered by the end of the book, this could have been a five-star read. Maybe there will be a sequel?
Ex Equals by LA Witt. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy, formerly in the Navy, who has just started teaching math at a community college and discovers that his ex (still in the Navy) is in his evening class.
In Remembrance of Us by AJ Rose. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy suffering from amnesia after a mugging. He's missing the last two years of his life… including he and his best friend becoming much, much closer. I got sniffly while reading this one. (Be aware that there's cheating, which I realize is an automatic no for some readers.)
Boystown 3: Two Nick Nowak Novellas by Marshall Thornton. ebook. Two very good historical m/m mysteries about Chicago PI Nick Nowak. It's 1982, and no one really understands why gay men are getting sick… 🙁
Bulletproof (A Matter of Time #3/#5) by Mary Calmes. ebook. Enjoyable roller coaster of a read that picks up three years after A Matter of Time. Sam's been away from home in deep cover for months. Jory's working a job he hates and trying to extricate himself from the complicated interpersonal situations he tangles himself into.
A Little Bite of Magic (Magic #1) by MJ O'Shea. ebook. Sweet paranormal m/m romance about a witch/chef who leaves his pretentious family behind in New Orleans to open a restaurant in San Francisco.
Happy Trails by Carol Lynne. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a college student out hiking with his cop brother and his brother's hot work partner. This read like a snippet from a longer book rather than a complete story, which I found frustrating.
"I am sooooooooooooo bored." -Mayhem


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